Large Scale and Mob Affiliations
The solo, buddy, and team affiliations given to Large Scale threats have always been a little strange and confusing, witness the addition of specific limits to explain them in Annihilation. Also, a simple D12+ to complicate out of the action scene a Large Scale threat or even a mob may seem too easy. These rules are presented as some relatively simple alternative rules. Mob Affiliation Any character with a Mob Affiliation is actually a group of "characters" that act together. It always uses it’s Mob affiliation regardless of circumstance. The most Stress the Mob can take is it’s Mob Affiliation die size; whenever the Stress exceeds that value, remove an Affiliation Die. For the purpose of Area Attack, you can treat a Mob as if it were a number of characters equal to it’s current Affiliation dice (although it probably represents many more individuals). Unlike normal characters, you can do multiple effect dice of the same type to a Mob (e.g. multiple physical stress effect dice). If that’s the last die, the Mob is taken out. A Mob is still capable of acting as long as the total “sides” of complications on it are less than or equal to the total “sides” of Affiliation dice it has left, but if the “sides” of it’s current affiliation drop below the “sides” of it’s complications, it is immediately taken out. For example, a 3D6 mob would have to have at least 18 “sides” of complications (for example, a D12 complication and a D6) to be completely taken out. However, if it already has a D12 complication, and then loses one Affiliation die, it would be taken out immediately. Explanation: Mob Affiliation is really just Team Affiliation for mobs under a different name, but the bit about complications is the big difference. Ihis makes them tougher, as a single D12 complication will not be enough. Large Scale Affiliation Any character with Large Scale Affiliation is a particularly powerful and dangerous individual. They always use their Large Scale Affiliation. Treat their Affiliation in the same way as Mob Affiliation, including how complications affect them, EXCEPT that the dice cannot be targeted individually or by Area Attack SFX. Explanation: The idea of Large Scale Threats like Galactus having Buddy and Team affiliations of small die sizes and fewer dice has always been confusing and unecessary to me. This just clears that up. Note that Complications work differently here as well. Associated Mobs Some characters have a multi-die power trait that has the phrase “Associated Mob” next to it. This trait represents a mob of followers for that character. They do not get a separate action, and do not affect the way the main character takes Stress or Complications. However, they can be targets of an Area Attack as if they were a separate mob, and can be assigned effect dice to reduce their numbers. To simplify matters in such cases, as long as the effect die is bigger than the die size of the power trait, it will remove one die from the trait; smaller dice have no effect and do not track stress and complications for them separately. Lost dice are recovered in a transition scene. Explanation: This is really just a clarification of the rules found on such characters as Multiple Man and Doctor Doom in the later books. To clarify such power traits, you would add "(Associated Mob)" just after the dice. For example "Royal Body Guard 3D8 (Associated Mob)". This differentiates the power trait from other potential multi-die power traits. Category:Rules